


Letting the Days Go By

by Nanenna



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farmtale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Monsters Weren't Sealed Underground, Domestic Fluff, Edwardian Period, Established Relationship, Family, FarmHorror (Undertale Ship), Farmtale Papyrus (Undertale), Farmtale Sans (Undertale), Farmtale Sans/Horrotale Sans (Undertale), Fluff, Head Injury, Horrotale Sans (Undertale), Implied/Referenced Cannibalism, M/M, Memory Loss, Patchwork AU, Permanent Injury, RottenCrops (Undertale Ship), Scarecrow (Undertale Ship), Starvation, no editing we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:30:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25160155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanenna/pseuds/Nanenna
Summary: Axe has had a hard life, he deserves to have a sweet happily ever after.
Relationships: Sans/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 131





	Letting the Days Go By

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Horrortale](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/763572) by Sour Apple Studios. 



Axe sat shivering with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The cold didn’t usually affect skeletons but if one was weak it could have just as much a toll on them as it could on fleshier monsters. Like, for instance, being stuck in ice for months on end and having your supplies run out and are now slowly starving to death, mana running so thin Axe doesn’t have the magic to spare to cushion his joints and keep dirt or ice crystals out and now has to rattle his bones near constantly to keep the joints from freezing over. Axe leaned further into his brother’s side, glaring at the dogs glaring at him. The crew was mostly a bunch of salty sea dogs, the few other non-dog monsters that hadn’t gone hunting with captain Muttler or to try to find help with Greater Dog were scattered to the edges of the hold, small groups of wary, cautious eyes all trained on the pack of dogs clustered together and staring hungrily at the rest.

Dogamy came into the hold, fresh off a round of checking over the ship, shaking off the icicles that had formed in his fur. Then he came stomping up to Axe. “Hey, give us the ax already.”

“No.”

“We’re freezing! There’s no wood left except the ship.”

“No, if we manage to get out of the ice-”

“It’s February! The ice isn’t going to mysteriously melt in the middle of February! We’ll freeze before then!”

“The whole ship’s made of wood, we’ll burn to death if even one spark gets out of control.”

“Better than starving to death while two perfectly good piles of bones sit there and selfishly hoard from the rest of the crew.”

“W-what?” Axe gripped his ax all the tighter, quickly standing and letting the blanket drop and pool around his ankles.

“You heard me, plenty of bones to chew on. We’re all starving, how long before we start dusting? Can’t eat dust, and there’s plenty of marrow in your bones.”

Axe couldn’t help laughing nervously, “You’re confused, there ain’t a drop of marrow in either of us, we’re not  _ animals _ .”

“Marrow, mana, it hardly makes a difference.” Dogamy lunged forward.

Axe swung up, getting a good hit in on Dogamy’s jaw. While Dogamy was reeling Axe kicked him over, holding him down with his foot while he brought the ax up, then swung it down right into Dogamy’s shoulder. Something warm and vibrant splattered over his face. Grinning broadly, Axe moved his foot to right below the injury and started trying to yank his ax out of the howling dog’s shoulder.

“(Kneel and suffer!)”

* * *

Axe blinked slowly awake, surprised he was still alive at all after attacking Dogamy. He’d seen what Dogaressa had done to people just for bullying her husband. As he continued to wake up he realized that something was off: he was warm, laying on something incredibly soft, and not feeling even the gentlest sway of waves below the ship. He didn’t feel a gnawing pit of hunger sucking the life out of his Soul either, that was nice.

Where was Sugar? Axe shifted, then realized he felt a skeletal arm thrown over him. Okay, that had to be Sugar. Brother located, Axe relaxed back into the bed and looked around the dark room. He felt like that memory of fighting with Dogamy was old, something that had happened a while ago, but the space between getting smacked on the head by Dogaressa and waking up in this moonlit room felt fuzzy and distant.

It was a nice room though, it looked like a typical bedroom with a dresser full of drawers, a vanity, some clothes thrown over the vanity’s stool, a changing screen of all things, more clothes draped over the top of it. Axe could hear someone moving around nearby, probably Sugar puttering around, he didn’t seem to see much use in sleeping.

Wait, if Sugar’s out there, then who’s in bed with him? Axe rolled over to see a skeleton he didn’t recognize asleep next to him. Their face was peaceful, fully relaxed with a bit of drool dribbling down his chin. His face looked so soft and flexible and really attractive in the moonlight. Axe’s Soul fluttered strangely in his rib cage, but he can’t help the fond smile as he reaches up to wipe away the trail of drool. The stranger’s face scrunched up briefly, then relaxed again as he settled back down on his pillow. Axe felt like he could just lay there and watch this stranger sleep for hours, but now he was curious about who was making all those noises in the other room. Was it really his brother? He felt just a little too anxious to leave it be when his memory was clearly not working correctly.

He slid out of bed to find himself down to just his shirtsleeves. Not the worst thing he’d woken up in, but Sugar would throw a fit if he went wandering around in that and nothing else. Maybe he could find some drawers or something before heading out. A brief hunt through the room turned up a dressing gown crumpled up on the floor next to the bed, he guessed he dropped it right before getting into bed. Convenient.

Now not objectionably “practically bare bones,” Axe quietly snuck out of the room and gently shut the door behind him. He found himself in a dark hallway, but seemed to instinctively know which direction to take, stepping over the boards he knew tended to creak or squeal. Funny how the house didn’t look familiar but it felt familiar all the same. He hoped whatever was going on with his memory wasn’t permanent. Down the stairs, hand touching the bannister the whole way, then through the moonlight drenched sitting room to head towards the warm candlelight spilling from the kitchen. He paused in the doorway to see a tall skeleton pulling out various utensils from drawers and placing them on the counter next to the stove.

“Hey Sugs, what’s cookin’?”

The skeleton turned around and gave Axe the friendliest grin. He wasn’t Sugar. “Good morning, Axe. How did you sleep?”

“Uh…” 

The familiar stranger’s face fell, then lit back up with forceful, determined cheer. “One of your bad days then, that’s alright. You must be a bit confused right now.” He paused to let Axe nod shyly. “That’s quite alright, nothing the Great Sprout can’t help you with! But first breakfast, you must be quite hungry.”

Axe was a bit hungry, but it felt like nothing compared to the months he’d spent with barely anything to eat on a ship full of equally starving monsters giving him nasty looks for being the navigator on a journey into uncharted waters with no way of knowing where he was guiding them to, only keeping track of where they’d been and certainly he had no way of controlling the weather either…

Sprout pulling out a chair and patting the table next to it pulled Axe out of his spiraling thoughts. Axe shook his head, then sat down in the offered chair, turned so he could keep an eye on the taller skeleton. He wasn’t as tall as Sugar, but he was broad shouldered and looked like he had dense, thick bones as opposed to Sugar’s thin, wiry bones. He went digging through the pantry before returning to the table with a covered plate and a pair of little jars he set before Axe. Then he turned back to the rest of the kitchen and Axe cautiously lifted the tea towel over the plate to reveal two toasted slices of bread. A pair of butter knives were placed next to the plate, Axe glanced up to see Sprout beaming down at him.

“A little something to tide you over while I make breakfast. Crop, my brother and the skeleton you likely woke up next to, will be up soon. We’ll need a hearty breakfast to get through the day.”

Axe just nodded at that and sent a hesitant smile Sprout’s way. Sprout beamed all the brighter, practically giving off his own light, before going back to gathering up everything he needed to start on breakfast. Axe opened the two little jars and gave them a sniff to find apple butter and strawberry preserves, both favorites of his.

“So,” Axe said as he generously spread the apple butter on the first slice of bread, “it’s been a few years since the expedition?”

"Yes," Sprout declared without looking away from what he was doing. "A bit over a decade. In fact," he continued cheerfully, "another expedition went and thinks they found the Northwest Passage. This time they explored over land by means of dog sled…"

"I don't wanna hear about it," Axe ground out angrily, gripping his butter knife so tightly his knuckles started glowing.

"Ah, yes, of course." Sprout nervously cleared his throat, "As I said, it's been about a decade. This is our family farm, my brother and I that is. Though you're part of the family now too!"

Axe nodded along as he savored his piece of bread, then nearly choked as the implication hit him. Blushing brightly he stuttered out, "O-o-h, is th-that uh how i-it is?"

"Yes!" Sprout said happily, then he turned and sent a gentle smile in Axe's direction, "Crop is very fond of you. For some reason I don't understand you make him very happy. And you seem happy too, when you remember."

"That's uh… that's nice?" Axe was certain if his face got any more flushed it would burst like an overripe tomato.

"Sugar doesn't like living in the country though, so he lives down south a ways in a big city. I believe you keep his letters in your room somewhere."

Axe perked up at that. He trusted his gut and his gut trusted Sprout, but it would be nice to have something more tangible to back Sprout up.

"And now that the snow has cleared up he'll likely be up for a visit soon. He'll probably bring along his gaggle of admirers."

Axe couldn't help laughing at that, good for his bro! He deserved a gaggle of admirers. Sprout babbled on about Sugar's beaux and Axe just listened quietly as he finished his first slice, then slathered the second in the strawberry preserves. 

"You said this is a bad day," Axe eventually cut in once Sprout moved onto local gossip, "is this permanent? I mean, do I just have to start my memory over from scratch again?"

"Mmmm… how do I put this? A lot of your memory is just gone forever, but usually you remember the broad strokes. Every morning you wake up confused, but on good days it comes back quickly and on bad days it's slower. Even now you probably remember more than you realize. But the doctor also said that because our feelings come from our Souls, even if all of you memories leaked out of that hole in your head,"

Axe reached up to trace his phalanges along a jagged hole in his skull. The edges were rounded, long since healed as much as it could for how big the hole was.

"... you'll never really forget how you feel about us," Sprout concluded with a broad grin thrown over his shoulder. "Ah, good morning, Brother!"

"'Mornin'," Crop said as he ambled into the kitchen, heading straight for Axe with one of his soft, jolly smiles on just for him.

Axe saw a brief image: he was standing outside under a tree white with flowers, their brothers looking proud on either side of them, Crop standing next to him, his Sunday suit pressed for once, his usual straw hat replaced with a crown of pale spring flowers Axe had lovingly and carefully woven together himself, a crowd of other people shaded the edges of the memory, only their bright smiles visible.

Crop leaned down and planted a kiss on Axe's cheek, Axe's Soul fluttered while his blush returned. "'Mornin', apple o' my eye socket."

Sprout groaned, Crop winked.

"Morning, my northern star," Axe returned, delighted when his endearment caused Crop to blush a soft green.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll admit I had an idea for a longfic, but with the way Axe's memory works here this works just as well. XD Let him be soft and live out his cottagecore domestic happily ever after while always surrounded by a steady supply of food. UwU


End file.
